Damon Runyon Researchers

Meet Our Scientists
Shruti Naik, PhD

Dr. Naik focuses on the fundamentally important interactions between the immune system, microbes, and adult skin tissue stem cells, and the consequences of such interactions for health and disease.  She studies how stem cells in epithelial tissues such as the skin sense and cope with inflammatory stress.  Her goal is to understand how inflammatory signals (either host-generated or microbial) provide adult stem cells with rapid, sensitive, and context-specific information, and how this process can go awry, potentially predisposing stem cells to diseases such as cancer. She hopes that her findings will facilitate the development of novel therapies.

Project title: "Immune-epidermal stem cell crosstalk in skin inflammation"
Institution: New York University School of Medicine
Named Award: Marilyn and Scott Urdang Breakthrough Scientist
Award Program: Dale Frey Scientist
Cancer Type: Skin
Research Area: Stem Cell Biology